When Mitch was a free agent the summer after his one-year stint in Houston, I remember asking management if he was a guy that just had to be back.
The Aeros wanted him back in the fold, but the St. Louis Blue organization made him a financial offer that he could not turn down.
Mitch called Constantine (KC) to ask him what he should do, and Constantine basically told him, "I want you back, but the Wild cannot offer you what St. Louis offered you."
The Aeros Tom Lynn pretty much told me the same thing, and that was in the same conversation about why the Aeros could not afford to bring back Corey Locke.
KC went on to tell Love to basically take the offer and not to make the decision any harder on him.
"You earned that raise, Mitch," said KC. "You deserve it ... "
Mitch was not able to replicate the same success with the Blues, and the next year (last year) he signed a CHL contact to play with the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs. He got hurt, didn't play much and returned to Everett this year to be an Assistant Coach.
My latest Aeros bit in the Press is now posted -- remember, it's through the Press that I get my pass press, so let them know you're appreciative.
Now a few random thoughts.
1. If you read my stuff in the mothership, especially during baseball season, or just listen to me talk, you know that I have a love/hate relationship with the Astros, one that has veered more to hate the past decade or so -- I'm a former employee, so my feelings of DraytonMcLane are anything but happy, and his failure to hire anybody competent to handle any job since he forced out Gerry Hunsicker continuously make me angry. I'm really not fond of Ed Wade, who I can't believe is still allowed to work in baseball.
What's this got to do with anything hockey, well, reading the comments from some of you guys makes me feel downright giddy when it comes to the prospects of the Astros, and me feeling giddy towards the Astros just doesn't happen.
I know that's lot of you aren't happy with where you see the team heading. I'm not either, but, it's only seven games into the season. Don't press the panic button yet. Give Mike Yeo a chance to implement his system and his plans. I think the regime in St. Paul will give him a bit more leeway than they gave Kevin Constantine last system, primarily because Yeo's their guy, so maybe that will help a bit.
2. That said, the Aeros are a FARM CLUB of the Minnesota Wild, and the team exists to serve the needs of the Wild. So if they want the Aeros producing defenseman and goalies, then so be it.
This team is never returning to the Chuck Watson days -- I don't get your nostalgia for that guy because he's the guy who kept Les Alexander from bringing the NHL to Houston, yet I read about nothing but the greatness of Chuck Watson. In many ways, I consider Watson to be on par with Bob McNair as being one of those guys treated like a saint who has done nothing to actually earn the sainthood status. And things are a bit different, primarily being that, for most of Watson's ownership, the Aeros were in the IHL, and the IHL was a bit different from the AHL in that the IHL teams didn't have lots of NHL affiliations and they could do what they wanted.
But unless the team has independent ownership, like Chicago who basically does whatever it wants, then the team is going to have to deal first and foremost with satisfying the needs of the parent club.
3. Get over KrysKolanos already. That's a myth that's not returning, no matter how much you bitch. It wasn't the Wild's fault he didn't come back, last year's staff didn't want him back, despite his performance for them. There's a reason he's generally with a different team every year -- and doesn't even have a contract at the moment. The entire Wild office, however, did want Corey Locke back, but he got a tremendous offer to sign with the Rangers.
4. Finally, just give the team a chance, for a bit. It's not showing record-wise, but I can see a better team on the ice than what there was last year. Just like, with the Astros, I can actually see a better team on the field now that they've cut ties with a bunch of guys and have made a try at start over with a new system.
Spent some time up at SLICE this morning as the guys practiced. And I've got a few notes and observations to share as the team preps for its first of many three-in-three's this season.
First: Matt Hackett will get the start in Oklahoma City on Friday night. Anton Khudobin will get the Saturday start at the home opener. Sunday's starter is to be determined, though Mike Yeo is saying that he hopes to have a rotation kind of system going for the first part of the year.
Second: the team is busing up to Oklahoma City tomorrow and returning by bus on Friday night/Saturday morning directly after the game. But whereas Kevin Constantine liked to put the team up in the Courtyard Marriott by Toyota Center on these kind of occasions, the team is instead returning to Sugar Land and will spend the time in their own beds before heading up for Toyota Center.
Third: I'm getting old. I couldn't believe how young Hackett looked as I talked to him -- read the mothership tomorrow for more on that.
Fourth: The guys did look like they were having more fun on the ice, and there was some excitement around them that I didn't see last season. Once again, check the mothership on that tomorrow as I talked to Brandon Rogers about that.
Fifth: Speaking of Rogers, he's number 38 this season.
Sixth: I was freezing at SLICE this morning, which means they must have fixed the compressor.
For any of you who were wondering about what former coach Kevin Constantine was going to be doing this hockey season, well, we have your answer. KC is off to France where he will be coaching a team there (sorry, the story is in French, but you should get the drift of it, or else try Google Translate.)
I thought KC was a great guy, and I hope he does well in France, and that he makes it back to our continent to coach again, soon. That said, KC does like to employ a defensive style of hockey, and we all know how the French are when it comes to defense.
Constantine is a great quote. I wish I'd kept my favorites but I was cleaning out my microrecorder today and ran across this one again, which was from after The Darcy Kuemper Game a few weeks ago where he got his first pro start and the team played great and got the win at home.
It really resonated with me as an "athlete" and as a human, but is also quite representative of the kind of thought KC put into answering our questions, into the game, into his players. Stuff like this is why I loved talking to him after games.
“The beauty of the game is every new day and every game is another opportunity to perform and to display your talents. And we realize, at the end of the night, you have the unavoidable feeling of either satisfaction and pride--or a little bit of frustration and embarrassment. So, you have to go into the game knowing that, those feelings, one or the other is going to happen.”
As soon as they got a new GM in Minnesota, I anticipated that this was KC's last season here, so there's no surprise in this. But I am grateful for his time here, not only because he made this team immeasurably better, but as someone still learning the game, to learn from him in particular has been a real privilege.
I've sat awhile tonight, wondering what to write about this last game (home game) of the season. Maybe I should have sat on my deck with a beer, like Heather, then again, seeing as how I live off of Milam, not far from a bunch of bars and clubs, sitting here, watching my tape delay of the Astros game (I wanted to hear how Jeff Bagwell did in the broadcast booth) and working on an unrelated assignment for the mothership, I still find myself unsure of just what to say, so here we go.
It's been a difficult season to cover the team. Not access wise. And the guys have always been willing to sit after a game and talk. It's just that it has been tough to write about them this year. There's been multiple games this season that have ended with the close loss. A close loss resulting from goalies that were perfect for just 58 minutes. Or from Aeros shots bouncing off of a post. The game the Aeros won 4-2 tonight was, in many ways, a perfect example of the type of games the Aeros have lost the entire season -- see that second period where they got off 24 shots but could only score once, then saw Texas score on two of their first four shots of the third period to take the lead.
****************** I'll probably do a proper write up later in the week -- Andrew's going to San Antonio tomorrow for that purpose, and hopefully I can get some stuff from him to use in the mothership, and here. So for now I'll just reference some other things from the game, and just throw out some general thoughts.
Heather referenced Carson McMillan's expression when he scored the go-ahead goal in the third. I spoke with him about that afterwards. What struck me about his response was that he wasn't trying to take credit for the goal. He thought it was a great shot by Jamie Fraser, and he wasn't going to take credit for the tip-in, but Duncan Milroy went up and told the officials that McMillan tipped it.
****************** Luke Strand was at the game, again, visiting with his friends Kevin Constantine and Troy Ward, and taking in the game. I talked to him a bit after the game, while the guys were out on the ice for the jersey auction. He was just amazed, after watching the team, that they were out of the playoffs. He just didn't see the quit that you normally see from a team that doesn't give a damn anymore. And there was the talk about what could have been as he noted the guys and goal scorers from last year's team that were no longer here, and just how different things could have been had they been here this year.
****************** Congratulations to Max Noreau for second team AHL. Maybe if certain people would have remembered to send the voting info to Andrew and myself -- as the guys in the past did -- he could have got up to first team. Still, Noreau's a class guy. He came up with a rocket shot, became a very good offensive defenseman, and this year worked on his defensive play. And just think of how bad the power play would have been without Noreau.
****************** The Aeros will finish the season with at least 80 points, and at least the .500 mark. And depending on what happens tomorrow, they might not even finish in last place. Not that that means anything other than the guys didn't quit.
***************** You guys have indulged me all year with my Beatles obsession. So as the season ends, I can think of no better way to close out than with my favorite song of all-time. So here's The Beatles with "Hey Jude."
The Aeros lost to Rockford tonight by a score of 3-1. That's nothing new. Nothing about this loss was new. The god awful first period. Yep, we've seen that before. The shoddy defense. Yep. The power play that turns into a short-handed goal? Yep.
I went down to the locker room after the game. I've got quotes from Kevin and Jon DiSalvatore. But really, there's no need to transcribe them because there's nothing new. DiSalvatore's upset about the first period. The team's better than this. The guy's care. They haven't given up. But just plug in a quote from him or any other player from one of the losses this season, and it will fit in. Same thing from Kevin.
It all kind of reminds me of a Beatles song -- yeah, shocking. "Baby's In Black" has a lyric that goes "Baby's In Black/And I'm feeling blue/Oh, what should I do?"
That's what it's like in the locker room. Heads are down. The silence is deafening. Guys just sit there, wondering what to do, feeling blue.
The season's over. Sure, there are still three games left. But the season's over. It's almost, looking around, like they can't believe it. Like this shouldn't have happened. That they're better.
That's it. I don't know what else to say.
TWO MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
The grandparents were in the house tonight, the grandparents being Chuck Fletcher and Jim Mill. And I don't think they were happy by what they saw. They were here looking for someone to take back to Minnesota with them. I don't know if they found anybody. When asked, Constantine said that having the brass around sometimes gets in to the heads of the guys and they think too much and don't just play. This is sometimes known as the Doug Riseborough effect as the guys always played like crap when he was around.
********* Kevin said the goal that came when Darcy Kuepmer got knocked over was a goal, to him and to the guys on the bench, and it was a goal without a doubt. In case any of you were wondering.
My apologies for taking so long to wrap up this weekend’s games. I cover more than just the Aeros -- thus my absence the past several weeks -- and there’s been breaking news with the Houston Cougars I’ve been having to deal with. Plus, I’m once again unemployed from my primary profession, and I’ve been trying to hunt up some work. So, that aside…
It’s been about a month since I’ve seen the Aeros play in person. The last game I remember seeing was the game where the news leaked out that Tony Hrkac was returning. So yes, it’s been awhile. But besides the Aeros dropping to the bottom of the standings, nothing much has changed. The effort’s still there. The guys still seem to give a damn. But despite the return of Andy Hilbert over the weekend, they still can’t find a way to get the puck in the damn net; the stupid penalties are still prevalent at unnecessary times -- Brandon, really, did you have to pull a Matt Foy on Sunday? And the goalies, no matter the criticism they’re getting from unnamed people, are doing their best to keep the team in games, but the goalies this year just aren’t able to do a repeat of the Nolan Schaefer/Barry Brust season of 2007-2008.
There were two winnable games over the weekend, but nothing the Aeros did seem to work. Well, I do think Kevin Constantine throwing out a starting line on Sunday of Matt Kassian, Robbie Earl, and Carson McMillan brought a different energy to the team. But the team lost 3-1 on Saturday and 2-1 in overtime on Sunday to the Milwaukee Admirals to drop even further back in last place.
Anton Khudobin got the start on Saturday, and he put up a good effort on Saturday, only to find himself, once again, sabotaged by his defense and lack of offense. And Wade Dubielewicz found himself victimized in overtime by a shot that hit the pipe and bounced in.
“It’s tough,” Dubielewicz said after the loss. “We’re a young group, we’re working hard. It’s really discouraging right now. We’ve got to find away -- whether it’s a big game out of a goalie or a big game out of player -- we’ve got to find a way to get out of this little funk we’re in and try to get some wins together. You never know what’s going to happen to other teams. But right now we’re backed into a pretty tough corner. Something special’s got to happen for us. Somebody’s got to do something special for us to get out of it.”
Dubielewicz said it was his hope, before the game, that he would be the one to provide that special game. He wanted to give his teammates the win, but he just couldn’t do it. And if ever a game was the epitome of the Aeros season, perhaps Sunday was that example. The Aeros outshot Milwaukee. They even had some great shot attempts, but there was some good Milwaukee goaltending to stop some of the shots, then there were two third period shots that clanked off the pipes, but instead of bouncing in, as the Milwaukee shot did on OT, they bounced out.
“There’s no quitting here,” Dubielewicz said. “And I’m proud of that. But at the same time, this is professional hockey, and we have to make plays, and we have to make saves, and we have to score goals. If you don’t do that, you’re not going to be around hockey for a long time. It’s really disappointing on that level because there’s a lot of character in this room. I think with a break or two we could be a different story.”
A break or two. That’s the been the team’s story the entire season. A break or two. And that break or two is something that they have yet to get. With just 11 games remaining in the season, the 29-30-7-4 Aeros should probably just forget about getting that break, unless, that is, you count as a break the opportunity to go home and erase this once-promising season from their minds.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
Andy Hilbert returned to action this weekend for the first time in months. The Aeros season was probably doomed to failure by Hilbert’s concussion, and the injuries to Peter Zingoni, because they were probably the guys with the best set of offensive skills on a team that desperately needed offensive skills. And while they missed large parts of the season, and guys like Nathan Smith spent time in Minnesota, the Aeros were just never able to put together a sustained offensive effort. But Kevin Constantine doesn’t want to use that as a crunch for what happened this season.
“You try to look at the fact that everybody goes through injuries,” he said Saturday night. “You try not to rely on the injury totals, or call-ups, to dictate -- if you look at guys called up through over the last three years, we haven’t really been a team that’s been completely dependent on certain injuries and call-ups. Other guys have managed to win.”
And Constantine has a point. Then you look at other things. For instance, Krys Kolanos was generally the guy called up to the Wild last season. And Kolanos’s trips up didn’t help the team. Then again, Kolanos wasn’t the team’s only offensive weapon last season. Corey Locke was putting up big numbers. So was Jesse Schultz. Marco Rosa put up good numbers. Things might have been different last season if Kolanos were to have been up with the Wild and Locke and Schultz were injured and unable to play for most of the season, but that didn’t happen.
And the team before that didn’t have much in the way of offensive talent, either. But Schaefer and Brust were both putting together incredible seasons that were beyond special, and which are not the type of numbers generally put up by a tandem because. And the primary guy who spent most of that season in Minnesota was Erik Reitz.
I appreciate what Constantine’s trying to get at. He’s not trying to use an excuse to explain away the season. But Zingoni and Hilbert were supposed to be key members of the offense, and with their extended absences, nobody on the front line has stepped up to take their place on a consistent basis. Max Noreau has tried from the blue line. And no one can discount the effort and hustle of Jean-Michel Daoust.
Well, you get my point by now, I hope.
*************** Okay, I know I’ve been away for awhile, but what happened to all of the Lady Dynamics? I saw five at each of the games, the same five. What happened to the rest? Did they bail on the team, or something?
*************** My Beatles selection tonight is dedicated to the goalies, Anton Khudobin, Wade Dubielewicz, and Barry Brust. Too often this season, it seems that they’ve had the weight of the world on their shoulders as they’ve tried to single-handedly carry the Aeros to victory. Thus, I bring you the final melody of side two of Abbey Road (the greatest album ever recorded), which just happens to feature the only drum solo ever performed by Ringo Starr as the drummer of The Beatles. So here’s “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End.”
Kevin Constantine looked defeated after the game tonight. He sounded defeated. Even when he was defending his team and their effort he just looked and sounded defeated. Perhaps that's because he is defeated.
Once again Wade Dubielewicz got the start in goal on a Saturday night. Once again he allowed three goals in the first period. And once again, the team just could not overcome the start. But at least he was perfect. He faced three shots, and three shots went in the goal before Barry Brust was sent in to damn the flow. But the damning of the flow came too late as the Aeros lost 5-2.
I'll let Constantine's words speak for themselves.
"Actually, I loved our first period," he said. "I didn’t like the score, but I loved the way we worked, competed, and got scoring chances. I thought, we as a team, played really, really good. We gave up a few things. And it wasn’t really entirely Wade’s fault, but we gave up a lot. We played really, really hard. I wasn’t disappointed with the effort of the guys at all."
The difference in the game was goal keeping. Primarily, Matt Climie faced an overwhelming number of shots and let in only two -- both of which were mistakes. Jean-Michel Daoust banged a shot off the post that found the puck rebound to Jamie Fraser in just the right spot, and Fraser took advantage to briefly tie the game. And in the third, with the game out of reach at 4-1, Climie went away from the net while the Stars were on the power play in order to play the puck. Jaime Sifers swiped the puck and was past Climie and scored an illogical sounding empty-net, short-handed goal.
As to the play of Dubielewicz, Constantine explained:
"It’s tough....He actually hadn’t played for awhile because of being with the Wild. So he hadn’t played for awhile with the Wild, and then Barry was on a bit of a roll, so that kept him out, and then he didn’t play for a week here. It’s very tough for a goalie to find a rhythm, but we wanted to give him a chance. Barry hasn’t been played bad, but Barry hadn’t won in a couple of games, and the other guy deserves a shot when that happens. We wanted to give him a chance."
***************************** The team just seemed to lose composure in the third period, which resulted in a fight-filled mini-brawl fest featuring cheap shots and lots of stupidity on the parts of many. This made a seemingly endless game seem infinitely longer than it already was.
*****************************
I'm jettisoning my year long Beatles music theme. There's only one song that I can think of which describes the horror that was this game. So here's Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb."
That was a pretty pitiful weekend of hockey, if you ask my opinion. The Aeros, with a chance to gain some ground in the playoff hunt, found themselves playing not only some uninspired hockey, but some stupid hockey.
There were numerous defensive breakdowns throughout the entire weekend, and if not for Barry Brust's play in goal, there's no telling how bad the losses would have been. And twice over the weekend the Aeros gave up short-handed goals. I see the stats, and I know the Aeros are supposed to have a good power play, but when's the last time we've seen a power play goal from this team at Toyota Center?
Kevin Constantine defended the team's offense tonight, saying that while the team wasn't scoring, it was getting good chances, and that all that you can ask is for a team to get good chances. The problem, as I saw it, however, was that the right players weren't getting the good chances. Some of today's best chances came from Brandon Rogers. I like Rogers a lot, but he's not the guy who should be having the best scoring chances.
And I know the played three games in three days and that they were tired. But I hate that excuse. The Chicago Wolves were playing their third game in three days tonight, all on the road, and they were missing some of their best players. But that didn't get to them. And not to go off on a rant, but I'll tell you what's hard and tiring. Try being so damn desperate work that you have to take a temp job that demands you work 11 hours a day, five days a week, and wants you to work weekends -- and where they make you ask permission to go to the doctor if you're having problems with your hearing because you didn't request that time back last month before the job started. That's hard. That's tiring.
I'm going on too long about something that has nothing to do with the game. I'm just disappointed, and I know that I didn't see the team play on the ice like they're capable of playing.
************************************************* One further note: Peter Zingoni was reinjured in Friday night's loss. I saw him Saturday before the game, and he wasn't in the best of spirits, and I can't help but feel for the guy. He was just trying to make a play on offense, trying to get off on a breakaway, and he went to hit a guy in front of him, and just like that he was hurt. You can just see not only how pained he is by the injury, but how pained he is by not being able to play.
He missed most of last season with an injury, and he came to Houston hoping to prove that that season was a fluke. He got off to a really hot start, and teamed up with rookies Cody Almond and Carson McMillan, he looked to be having a break out year. Then he hurt his knee, and he's been in-and-out, mostly out, for the season.
That's it. Thanks, as always, for reading us here at T3I. We do appreciate it.
Sorry, I've got no comforting words after this one. The final score might have been 7-2, but trust me, it wasn't that close. Barry Brust didn't appear to have his best game tonight, but then again, his defense didn't appear to have its best game either as both he and Wade Dubielewicz, who played the last part of the third period, were both hit repeatedly by odd-man rushes and breakaways.
Kevin Constantine wasn't in the best of moods afterwards. He was disappointed by his team's non-thinking on the ice. He was very displeased about how the team played a chance at a potential 5-3 power play into being on the penalty kill. The defense wasn't good. The offense didn't take advantage of their chances. There's just nothing good to say.
Peter Zingoni left the game in the first with a lower body injury. Constantine played only three centers in the second period, then he moved Brandon Rogers up front in the third.
The Aeros needed this win tonight -- they just about need a win every time they play. And they looked awful. Not sure of what else there is to say. So I'm out going to wrap it up. Let's hope tomorrow night leaves us with a better result.
Apologies, again, for the short post. I've got to get up at 5:00 a.m. for the temp job -- I'm should get about 65 hours this week and I have decided that sleep is overrated. Hopefully Heather or Andrew can add some more words of wisdom than I'm capable of at the moment.
Some quick notes from tonight's game because...I lost my quotes when I sent my story to the mothership and I don't feel like re-transcribing and I really need to get to bed.
The Aeros got the 4-1 win in a must-win game, but it could prove to be very costly. Max Noreau blocked a shot with his left forearm in the second period, and he did not return. He'll be getting X-rays on Thursday. He will not be traveling with the team to Milwaukee on Thursday morning, but he hopes to be able to join the team if the X-rays come out okay. However, if he got a break, he'll probably be out 4-6 weeks.
Jon DiSalvatore missed the game because he was sick. He might travel to Milwaukee. Or might not. Kevin Constantine told us after the game that he has no idea of who'll be on the plane. Colton Gillies is probably facing a suspension. And I saw him come out of the trainer's room, but I don't know the extent of his injury.
Speaking of injuries, the Aeros got lucky with Barry Brust. It looked from the press box like he hurt his right foot, but he got slashed on his thigh right above his right knee. It was really deep and nasty, and he took about 25-30 stitches before he could get back out on the ice. As it was, he needed more work on it after the game. Constantine said that the ref and the Peoria coach gave him an extra two minutes when they didn't have to so that Brust could get back out on the ice.
Jeff Crawford got the call from Troy Ward at about 1:30 asking if he could suit and back up Barry Brust. Crawford said this was a once in a lifetime thing, and that he didn't know that Brust was going to come back out for the second period. His goalie experience has come during Aeros practice where he has filled in at goal when Dubielewicz and Khudobin have been sick or injured. Brust said that, after the season's he had, there was no way he was coming out of the game. And Constantine gave Brust the credit for the win, saying that this was one of those games that was dependent on the goalie to win.
Constantine does not yet know what the team is going to do about a backup goalie in Milwaukee. There's a chance that either Dubielewicz or Khudobin will rejoin the team. If not, Constantine said they would make some calls and check around on who is available in the Milwaukee area. I would suggest they give Tony Hrkac a call and see if he has any recommendations. He also does not yet know what will happen with the forwards, and whether he'll need to find someone along the way.
I have not heard anything further on the condition of Bryce Lampman.
(And please check the mothership tomorrow for quotes from Crawford, Brust, and Constantine).
Sorry, I've got almost zero time -- these 11 hour work days on the temp job are wiping me out.
Anyway, just a few notes. Wade Dubielewicz is probably on his way up to Dallas tomorrow to back up Josh Harding because of illness to Niklas Backstrom. At least that seemed to be the gist that came from Andrew's discussions with the Minnesota goalie coach, who was in attendance.
The star of the night, for the Aeros, was probably Continental Airlines. Dubielewicz flew from San Jose to Houston on Sunday in first class because that was the only seat available on the plane, and that allowed him to get some sleep.
The Aeros got the 3-1 win over Abbotsford in a game that Kevin Constantine said wasn't close to perfect, but which saw them play good hockey for 40 minutes and then be bailed out by Dubielewicz as they were outshot 14-1 in the third. But a win is a win for this team, especially since, with only 30 games left, they don't have many chances left.
Both Dubielewicz and Constantine stressed afterwards that the team needs to have a 10-game segment soon where they go 7-3 or 8-2. Constantine said the team is generally 5-4-1 or 6-4 or 5-5 on their 10 game segments, and that this would be good enough for the playoffs in most divisions. But in the West, it's barely good enough for fifth place.
I'll have more in the mothership tomorrow -- hopefully Andrew or Heather will link the story to the blog as the temp job people kind of frown on the whole blogging on company time thing. And I'm sure Andrew will follow this with some more notes of his own. I'm sorry if I let you down, I know I usually give out lot more detailed stories, but I really need to get some sleep.
Hopefully, I'll see you on Wednesday as the Aeros take on Peoria at Toyota Center.
Here’s the deal. I’ve got a bad cold. Bad. Heather and Andrew will attest to the large amount of medication that I had sitting in front of me tonight -- as will one of my lucky readers who saw me at the Walgreens buying said medication. So let’s just say I was rather doped up for this game. And that doping up probably, more than anything, explains what I saw tonight.
Not only did the Aeros, at times, resemble a competent offensive team during tonight’s 5-2 Aeros win over the Toronto Marlies, but there were major offensive contributions from Matt Kassian and J.P. Testwuide. I had to imagine Kassian faking out a goalie and getting a goal on a good shot after a pass from Testwuide, right? That was all just part of my drug-induced imagination, right?
I guess not.
Talking to the players after the game, it was clear that they were not happy with what happened in Rockford. They thought the effort was there, but not the result. And tonight they were out to make sure the result matched their effort.
The first period was rather normal for the Aeros. They scratched a goal when Jean-Michel Daoust does what he does best. Be in the right place. This time in front of the goalie as he was able to get his stick on the puck and direct past Toronto’s starting goalie Joey MacDonald at 17:21 with assists from Nathan Smith and Max Noreau.
Then came the second period when the cold medication took hold of me. Matt Kassian got out on a breakaway, and with a pass from Testwuide he faked out MacDonald and got off a nice shot to put Houston up 2-0 at 2:12. Then Nathan Smith stuffed it in at 5:01 to make it 3-0, which brought about MacDonald’s removal in favor of Andrew Engelage. But just over two minutes later, Smith scored off of a rebound to make it 4-0.
At 17:19 of the third, with the Aeros on the penalty kill, Danny Irmen went flying down the ice with the puck. Testwuide followed, Irmen made a nice pass, and Testwuide got the goal to make the score 5-2.
The Aeros are now off for the All-Star break, and they will return to play on Friday when they play the first of two games in Abbotsford against the Heat.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
Thanks to the losses in Rockford, the Aeros had a bit of a free-fall in the standings. Milwaukee, at 24-13-1-4 (54 points) is in first. Texas, 23-13-2-4 (52 points) is in second. Rockford, thanks to Houston, is in third at 23-18-2-3 (51 points). Chicago at 23-16-0-2 and Peoria at 22-15-1-3 are tied for fourth with 48 points. Then comes Houston with a record of 20-17-6-1 (47 points).
The Aeros aren’t out of the playoff chase. But they know that the Rockford games hurt them, and they knew the importance of getting a win tonight.
“Obviously a big win for us,” Nathan Smith said. “We thought our effort deserved better than what it got on the road trip…take a look at our division and we need the points. Obviously a big win for us heading into the All-Star break.”
J.P. Testwuide agreed: “We went into Rockford, and we were doing a lot of things right. We realized that, but it was frustrating. We couldn’t get the goals. Their goalie stood on his head. There were all of these excuses that we had to kind of battle through. Tonight, it kind of paid off. It was a good win.”
But the win tonight is useless if the team doesn’t find a way to carry it over after the break.
“You always talk about points in November are important,” Kevin Constantine said. “But the reality is, as the season wears on you have less and less games to play, you’ve got less and less of a chance to catch up. We have to play catch up. That’s just the way it’s going to be here.”
**************** One thing this team needs, what with all of the injuries and call-ups, is for every player on the team to be making a contribution. Nathan Smith had two goals and an assist tonight, Jean-Michel Daoust had a power play goal, and Max Noreau threw in two assists. But it’s guys like Matt Kassian, with a goal, and J.P. Testwuide, with a goal and two assists, that the Aeros are going to need continuing contributions from if the team is to succeed.
“[Matt Kassian] has had his best month by far of his pro career in the last month,” Constantine said. “Two goals [this season]…he’s played the best hockey I’ve seen him play over the last month of his entire pro career….We’ve got so many banged up bodies and bodies gone to the Wild, that everybody has to contribute. Because we’re a not a team that’s going to depend on one or two guys to carry us.”
Constantine is hopeful of having Peter Zingoni, Andy Hilbert, and Jaime Sifers back from injuries when the team returns to play in Abbotsford on Friday, though it sounds as if Zingoni is the closest to returning. It will be big for the Aeros if they can start getting some of these guys back from injury. I can't remember when Zingoni last played, but I do remember that at the start of the season he was really meshing with rookies Cody Almond and Carson McMillan. He wasn't, however, sure of the extent of Jon DiSalvatore's injury.
**************** The Aeros just missed out on several hat tricks tonight. Nathan Smith was a goal short of the regular hat trick. And with his assist, he was a fight short of the Gordie Howe hat trick. Matt Kassian had a fight early in the first to go with his goal in the second, leaving him an assist short of the Gordie Howe. And Testwuide, with a goal and two assists was just a fight short of the Gordie Howe.
And it was the near Smith hat trick that got a joke out of Constantine which came about after Smith got 10 minutes on a misconduct call in the third.
“I don’t know what Smitty was doing, removing himself from that game for ten minutes at the end,” Constantine said. “I thought he was going to go for the hat trick, but I think he wanted the Gordie Howe hat trick instead.”
**************** Chad Rau got hit with a five minute major for boarding when he delivered a hit on Toronto’s Joe Ryan in the second period. Ryan was down on the ice for a long time, but the hit didn’t look to be intentional on Rau’s part.
“Take a look at Chad Rau’s stats,” Nathan Smith said. “And he’s not a guy who’s going to try and injure anybody.”
But after Carson McMillan’s four-game suspension earlier this month, it’s probably wise to wonder about what might become of Rau.
And this hit leads to my Douche Of The Game, which is the Toyota Center sound crew.
Seriously, when there’s a player down on the ice, and the medical staff is out on the ice working on said player, and his teammates are surrounding him and everybody is wondering about just how serious the injury is, you really SHOULDN’T be playing “The Chicken Dance.” You shouldn’t be playing any music, but especially not “The Chicken Dance.”
Try having some class for once.
And now that think about it, I'm kind of shocked that some of the people who roam the Toyota Center shouting into microphones during games didn't decide to start making some of their own contributions during that time.
**************** Since the Aeros were talking about everyone having to pitch in and help out, I thought it was only appropriate that I play The Beatles "With A Little Help From My Friends."
Here’s the deal. I’m tired. I’m temporarily working, and it’s a schedule that involves me waking up at five everyday. I’ve got a cold. I’m cranky. So I’m not much up for writing one of my long rambling fill in every single blank that happened during the game post.
So you’ll get this.
The Aeros lost to the Rockford IceHogs 2-1 in overtime. Yes, the Aeros losing in overtime. Shocking. I know. The Aeros one goal came at 4:28 when Jean-Michel Daoust knocked in the rebound of a Chad Rau shot to make it 1-0.
“All I remember was that it was a shot on net,” Daoust said. “And then there was a rebound on my blade and I just put it in.”
The Aeros kept that lead until 3:57 of the second when Rockford’s Kyle Greentree took the cross-ice pass from Akim Aliu and buried the puck past Wade Dubielewicz. And the score stayed tie at one until 2:12 of the overtime when Mike Brennan fired a shot that was going wide of the net, but was deflected in for the goal when it hit Dubielewicz’s stick to give Rockford the win.
“It’s unbelievable,” Dubielewicz said. ‘I thought I was going to be able to break the overtime bug. I don’t think I’ve lost one yet to now, but that’s unbelievable.”
Following the loss, the Aeros record dropped to 19-15-6-1 (45 points). The good news is that they’re now in fourth place in the West Division. The shocking news is that Milwaukee is now in first at 22-12-1-5 (50 points). Texas has dropped into second with a record of 21-13-2-4 (48 points), and Rockford is now in third place at 21-18-2-2 (46 points).
The Aeros return to action on Wednesday night when they play the first of two in Rockford. They’ll play in Rockford on Friday night, then host Toronto on Saturday night.
A MISCELLANEOUS NOTE:
The Aeros are a really banged up squad right now. Kevin Constantine says it the low point for the team this year. They’re not yet sure of how badly injured Jaime Sifers is. Ryan Lannon is also out from an injury in Friday’s game. Brandon Rogers suffered back spasms after Friday’s game. Constantine believes that Rogers might be able to return on Wednesday. It’s slightly possible that Andy Hilbert will be able to return, but Constantine didn’t seem confident regarding that prognosis. There’s no timetable on Peter Zingoni’s return. Carson McMillan has two games remaining on his suspension.
But today’s roster listed Barry Brust with the defensemen and forwards, and not the goalies. So maybe Constantine can use him to help out. Of course, Brust is in Florida with the Everblades at the moment, so that might be kind of hard to pull off.
To help handle the injuries, the Aeros brought up left win Trent Campbell from South Carolina of the ECHL. He earlier played for the AHL Worcester Sharks this season. And they also brought up defenseman Ross Rouleau from Texas of the CHL.
The Houston Aeros defeated the Rockford IceHogs 5-3 tonight before 4504 people inside of Toyota Center. This wasn’t just a normal hockey game. It wasn’t even a normal hockey game for the Houston Aeros. Any game that sees Matt Kassian score a goal can’t be called a normal game. But perhaps the most surreal thing about this game was just how dominating Rockford was through the first two periods.
The Aeros got the early lead at 10:57 of the first when Jamie Fraser scored a goal (his first of the season) on a shot that appeared to bounce off of two Rockford players before getting past IceHog goalie Corey Crawford. Rockford’s Jack Skille tied the game at 9:20 of the second when he got his stick on Brian Connelly’s shot at deflected the puck past Wade Dubielewicz for the score.
Rockford dominated the second period. They got off 21 shots, but were only able to get one goal. Yet it appeared that the Aeros were going to be lucky to leave the ice for the second intermission with the score tied 1-1. But at 17:34, Jean-Michel Daoust fired the puck toward the Rockford goal. The puck hit off of somebody -- there was a dispute as to who it hit - and was deflected past Crawford once again to make it 2-1 as the period ended.
And surviving that second period seemed to power the Aeros the rest of the way as they took control in the third.
“I think, as a group, it was a big step for us, that third period,” Dubielewicz said. “We came out and really took it to the next level.”
That next level included out-shooting Rockford and seeing Jon DiSalvatore knock in the rebound of a Cody Almond shot at 9:58 to make it 3-2, then saw Petr Kalus on a breakaway that brought back memories of Krys Kolanos to make it 4-2 at 12:00, then the moment that Aeros fans had been waiting for all year with Matt Kassian getting a goal on one of those strange shots that bounced over the back of Crawford then rolled into the net at 15:16 to make it 5-2.
Rockford got a goal with 37 seconds left to make it 5-3, but by then, there was just nothing they could do as the Aeros were just solidly in command.
The win moved the Aeros into a three-team tie for third place in the West Division. Texas (21-11-2-4) is on top with 48 points. Milwaukee (20-12-1-5) is in second with 46 points. Peoria (20-13-1-3), Houston (19-15-5-1) and Rockford (20-17-2-2) are all tied with 44 points. And when the Aeros next play, on Sunday afternoon, they will be facing the IceHogs again.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
This was a night of firsts. Jamie Fraser got his first goal of the season with his first period goal. But the talk of the night, in the stands, the bench, and the locker room, was Matt Kassian getting his first goal of the season -- and his first since February 8, 2008 when he scored the final goal in a 6-3 win at Chicago.
“Guys were pretty jacked on the bench about that goal,” Kevin Constantine told us after the game. And Kassian was still jacked after the game.
“It was probably the prettiest goal of my life…or not,” Kassian said. “It helps the team out, and anytime you can chip in it’s good, and it’s a great feeling to kind of get that in there. And finally to have one go in when you have so many chances and so many bounces that just haven’t gone your way to kind of get a lucky one to get the first one -- it’s a pretty good feeling. I’m definitely happy about that.”
Constantine told us that this goal has been coming because he thinks that Kassian is on the best stretch of offensive-oriented hockey since he’s been with the team.
“I think over the last 10 games, if you looked at maybe eight games, he’s actually had a quite a few scoring chances over the last eight games,” Constantine said. “If you looked at any segment of eight games since he’s been here, I’d bet the last eight, he’s had the most, been part of the offense more than he ever has since he’s been here.”
******************* The second period was a tough one for the Aeros, and it was surviving the second that helped power the Aeros through the third. Wade Dubielewicz had his problems through the night -- he wasn’t exactly what one would call steady -- but he was able to hold Rockford to just one goal during that second period barrage.
“I had 20 shots, but I don’t know…at least eight or 10 of them were because I was kicking them straight back out,” he said. “As a goalie, it was just one of those nights where everything that hit me hit me really solid, and nothing stuck to me. But as a group, we were doing a good job of winning those battles 15 feet in front of the net. I made the first save and they were doing a good job of clearing that second puck out.”
One thing that Dubielewicz had to face in the second was a penalty kill shot by Jack Skille after a penalty by Nathan Smith.
“That guy made a good move, and he made a good play. I forced him to put it up high, and he put it up too high…” Dubielewicz said. “I didn’t get a piece of it. I forced him to go high at least, and he missed the spot. I got a little lucky there. I got a few breaks tonight, and you need some breaks to be good sometimes.”
Kassian said it was a matter of the Aeros holding together and not breaking during the barrage.
“They obviously came out in the second period with a lot more fire than we did. They definitely outplayed us in the second period. So really for us it was about a bend and don’t break….“ he said. “But we didn’t break. We did bend a little bit, but that’s okay, and we were able to kind of reset and refocus, and we know our second period wasn’t the best, and we knew that in the second intermission and we just all kind of came together and pulled it out like we needed to in the third.”
**************** Robbie Earl and Clayton Stoner are in Minnesota. The team brought Brandon Buck back up from Florida. Still, the one thing couldn’t afford was injuries. Which is probably why the team got hit by injuries to Jaime Sifers and Ryan Lannon during the game -- injuries which kept them from returning. Constantine had moved Brandon Rogers up to forward for the game, so he was luckily able to shift him back to the defenseman position.
We talked to Constantine about the injuries afterward, but he said he still didn’t know what their injuries were other than upper body injuries. He thought that Sifers had injured his shoulder -- ala Colt McCoy -- but he was told after that the game that it wasn’t the shoulder.
J.P. Testwuide was a healthy scratch, and Rogers can be moved back to defense, so the team can play with a full compliment of defensemen. But with the injuries to Andy Hilbert and Peter Zingoni and the suspension of Carson McMillan, the Aeros are not only short on forwards -- something they have been all season it seems -- but they’re actually short of a full squad of healthy players. So it should be interesting to see what happens on Saturday.
**************** I don’t know if it was discussed on the radio, but Barry Brust was not on tonight’s roster, so I can only assume that means that he’s on his way back to Florida. I’m sure that that’s something Heather and/or Andrew can discuss with a little more authority later.
**************** I thought tonight’s game was kind of surreal, what with a penalty shot and first goals by Fraser and Kassian. So continuing with my Beatles theme, I went looking for a kind of surreal song. Thus I give you “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.”
At 18:47 of the third period tonight, I saw something that I don’t think I’ve seen while covering the Aeros. Danny Irmen stormed off the bench and hit the ice in full stride, streaking up the middle of the rink toward the Abbotsford Heat goal. Then without breaking stride, he started banging his stick on the ice, demanding the puck. Nathan Smith saw him, fed him the puck, and Irmen banged it into the net to tie the game at 3-3.
The Aeros lost the game in overtime, but they managed to gain a point out of a game that saw them sitting in single digits in shots midway through the third period. More amazing, the Aeros had also given up a two-goal lead, and appeared to be a dispirited team just hoping to make the end of the game so as to get some time off.
But Irmen came out, demanding the puck, and earned the team a point.
Don’t talk to Irmen about earning the puck, however. Or getting the goal. Because this is Danny Irmen, and Irmen’s first thought was to a teammate that he let down.
“The first thought for me: I think Anton deserved better than that….” Irmen said. “Some nights are like that, but we have to play harder in front of him. And we had a two goal lead and we didn’t manage it well at the end of the second. Not me, personally.”
The Aeros got their first two goals off of the power play, the first coming at 13:42 when Robbie Earl knocked in the rebound of a Chad Rau shot to put Houston up 1-0. Then Cody Almond got a nice pass from Jean-Michel Daoust at 17:49, and he buried the puck to put the Aeros up 2-0.
That’s where the score stayed until 15:43 of the second when Jason Jaffray got lose on the Aeros defense and scored the short-handed goal to make it 2-1. And at 17:40, Khudobin blocked Cam Cunning’s shot only to have J.D. Watts stuff the rebound five-hole to make it 2-2. And Abbotsford made it 3-2 at 7:15 of the third when Watts got his second goal of the night on a shot that when under Khudobin’s right arm pit.
“It’s good to get a point,” Irmen said. ‘But we prefer two. We should play better.”
Should’ve. Could’ve. Would’ve. The Heat scored at 2:07 of OT to get the 4-3 win. But for once, the Aeros might have been lucky to get out with just a point.
“I think the point was very, very big,” head coach Kevin Constantine said. “Very big. Based on how deflated you’d be giving up a two-goal lead. And so we get a point, we hang in there, and we’re right in the middle of a really fun season in terms of the playoff race. So I wasn’t that disappointed in the result.”
And now the Aeros get some rest as they don’t play again until Wednesday night when they play the Stars in Austin.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
The Aeros are now 18-15-4-1 (41 points) on the season. They’re still in fifth place by one point, just sitting behind the jumble of Peoria, Milwaukee, and Rockford who are all tied with 42 points. And they’re just five points behind Texas, which earlier this season appeared to be running away with the division.
**************** For most of the game, the most fun we had on press row was wondering whether the Aeros would set a new Houston record for least shots in a game -- the number is 11, set in Detroit in 1999 with the home low being 12 in a 2000 loss to Milwaukee.
The Aeros only had six shots after two periods, and about a third of the way through the third period the Heat had a 32-8 shot advantage. But Houston got off 14 shots in the third and ended up only being out shot 42-21 for the game.
A lot of this can be attributed to the team being tired -- this was their fifth game in seven nights. And the players were clearly gassed when we saw them in the locker room afterwards. Several mentioned not being able to feel their legs. And for some of the new players, like Chad Rau, this is the most games they’ve played in a season since juniors.
“I’m probably the last guy in the world to make up an excuse,” Constantine said. “To be a good pro, you’ve got to constantly eliminate excuses, all the time. So I’m generally working the other way, but I’ll go the other way, and I’ll say that playing five games in seven nights is really hard, and give our guys a bit of an excuse. Not because, you know, we gave up a two goal lead. We gave it up on a power play.
“There’s some things we can’t do to be a good team. But, the lack of energy, the lack of shots -- and hey, Abbotsford played three-in-three, too, so it’s not like they were really fresh. But five-in-seven is a grind. And so, in many ways I expected the game to look a little bit like this today.”
But Irmen wasn’t necessarily buying the tired excuse, and he was disappointed in his performance. “But there’s no excuse,” he said. “We should have played like that for 60 minutes, and we didn’t.”
And let’s hear it for Anton Khudobin, who has been a bit of a punching bag, lately. Some of the goals he gave up tonight were kind of soft, but the team needed him to keep them in it tonight because they just weren’t capable of doing that on their own, and he did, blocking 38 of 42 shots.
***************** Constantine told us afterwards that, normally, the number of shots isn’t indicative of how good, or bad, a team’s playing. But he felt that the guys couldn’t help noticing the low of number of shots and thus just did what they could in the third to get back in the game.
“The shot clock’s not always the best indicator of how you’re doing, but it’s the only thing that you can stare out,” he said. “And it’s sitting right there in front of you. So it really affects you psychology when you look up, it’s the only like number you get during the middle of the game. And the scoreboard. I know looking at that thing wasn’t enjoyable for the guys at all. And I also know that, being around the group for four months now, they’re not a group that’s afraid to work hard.”
But no matter how hard they worked, they just didn’t have enough gas left in the tanks.
*************** The Aeros currently have three goalies in Houston as Wade Dubielewicz has returned from Europe, and Barry Brust is still in town. Anton Khudobin got the start tonight, and he was backed up by Dubielewicz. Constantine was asked about this situation after the game, and he told us that this is a situation that needs to be discussed between his staff and the brass in Minnesota. But he indicated that, as of now, all three should remain with the team.
*************** Andy Hilbert was scratched more as a precautionary measure than anything. He suffered a bit of an injury during the last game in Milwaukee, so Constantine thought it was best to rest him. Jaime Sifers was scratched because he is suffering from the flu. And not just a slight case of the flu. The way Constantine was talking, it was more like Sifers was doing his best impersonation of Mr. Creosote while the team was on the road (warning, not for the squeamish or the humor impaired).
But otherwise, except for Peter Zingoni, the team is healthy. Healthy, but just tired and in need of the rest that they’re going to be getting before playing again on Wednesday.
So seeing as how tired they are, I think The Beatles “Let It Be” is appropriate to play us out tonight. The Aeros will return home for two games against Rockford -- Friday and Sunday. So until then, let it be, let it be.
Before I go further, I want to apologize to all of you for being so late with posting this. I’ve had a rather awful day -- I hate temp jobs, especially when they end weeks before they’re supposed to end -- and I got home to discover some new problems with my COBRA, so I’ve been dealing with those issues.
Now that out of the way…
The Houston Aeros won a game tonight that they normally shouldn’t have won. They got the 5-4 OT win while getting help from some unlikely sources -- Ryan Lannon and J.P. Testwuide -- and some expected sources who appear to be beginning to heat up a bit. They had what appeared to be some bad goalie play, until you stop and think about what Barry Brust was dealing with all night. They scored a goal on the power play, but gave up three goals on the penalty kill.
Yeah, this isn’t the type of game that this season’s Houston Aeros normally win. But win they did. And in doing so, they won not only the most exciting game of this season, but also the final home game of this calendar year.
It was a game in which the Syracuse Crunch got the first goal -- a power play goal midway through the first period that Barry Brust didn’t appear to have a chance at stopping. The Aeros tied the game at 15:27 when Ryan Lannon got his first goal since the 2007-08 season when he was with the Wilkes-Barre/Scanton Penguins (paper demands fulfilled by Dunder-Mifflin). Lannon’s high shot from the circle just cleared the top pipe and bounced back out onto the ice almost immediately. But it was a goal nevertheless.
Syracuse took the 2-1 lead in the first, but Andy Hilbert, who had been close to scoring the entire night, got a beauty of a pass from Chad Rau and slipped the puck into the net to tie the score at 2-2 (it’s a shame they didn’t show the replay of this goal inside Toyota Center because it really appeared to be pretty damn nice. The Aeros then took the lead at 15:15 when Jon DiSalvatore got the power play goal when he knocked in the rebound of a Hilbert shot.
Syracuse tied the game on a power play goal just 44 seconds into the third when Bates Battaglia went five hole. And two minutes later, the Crunch took the 4-3 lead when Tomas Kana fired the puck past Brust -- once again, on a power play. But the Aeros didn’t quit and Jean-Michel Daoust, after having several shots bounce off various portions of the pipe, finally knocked one into the net at 4:05.
And there it stayed until 52 seconds into the OT when J.P. Testwuide, who had earned his first professional point earlier in the night when he assisted on Daoust’s goal, got a pass from DiSalvatore and launched the puck for the goal. A goal which was also his first goal as a professional.
“It was kind of late in my shift,” Testwuide said. “I just came in off the half-wall. We had a guy drive the middle lane, I think it was Daoust, he was driving down, and I knew if I just got the puck there, I’d probably get a whack at it and he might get a whack at it. And luckily it snuck right under his arm.”
It wasn’t the kind of win that Kevin Constantine wants to see from his team every night, but it’s still a win, and neither he nor his guys are going to turn away two points.
“And I’ll give them credit,” Constantine said of his team. “We kept battling. It’s hard to win when you don’t score first. That was only our third win all year when we don’t score first. So it’s hard to win, anytime in hockey, any team you’re playing, when you don’t score first. And we managed to hang in there long enough to find a way to win the game, so that was good.”
With the win, the Aeros are now 17-14-2-1 (37 points) on the season. They’re just two points away from being part of the huge logjam for second place -- Peoria, Milwaukee, and Rockford -- are all tied with 39 points. And with two straight losses, the Stars are now only seven points up on Houston.
The Aeros will finish the calendar year out on the road. They play in Chicago on Wednesday, Rockford on Thursday, and Milwaukee on Friday -- Happy New Year! They’re back home on Sunday for their first game ever against the Abbotsford Heat.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
It would be easy to say that Barry Brust didn’t have the best of games between the pipes. After all, he surrendered four goals. But three of those goals were on the penalty kill, and at many times, he appeared to get let down by his defense. And think, if not for Brusty’s play, the score might have been much, much worse.
“If you looked at that game though, we still probably gave up nine odd-man attacks, six two-on-ones, add another five-six three-on-twos, those came in bunches,” Kevin Constantine said afterwards. “So if you looked at about a five minute segment of that game, it wasn’t good at all. But if you looked at the other fifty-five minutes, we were better than we were the other night.”
But if not for Brust, those five minutes might have destroyed the team. As it is, while he’s happy with the win, Constantine’s still not happy with his team.
“I had exhausted my intensity in the last two days,” he said. “I really was disappointed in both of our last games. We talked long and serious as a team about our last two performances prior to this. I mean, we got a win against Grand Rapids, but lucky. And didn’t play well the other night. So I think our guys were really determined to be a better team tonight.”
One line that Constantine’s happy with, though, is the line anchored by Andy Hilbert. I’ve been watching this line the past several games, and it’s often seemed to me that they’ve been just inches away from breaking out for a big game from the unit. So tonight we had Rau setting up a Hilbert goal. We had Hilbert setting up Jon DiSalvatore and Jean-Michel Daoust. And Daoust got the game-tying goal.
But leave it to Constantine to set me right by noting that this is something that’s been happening for the past ten games, at least offensively, though he hasn’t exactly been thrilled with their defensive intensity.
“I think, over the last 10 games, his line, and he, have been very good offensively,” he said. “They’ve had a little bit of a struggle, as a line, in their own end, but offensively, they’ve been very, very good. And Andy [Hilbert] was very determined tonight. He’s a really good guy, and he’s a good leader, and he really cares. I think he wanted to do something, to make a contribution, to kind of get our team playing a little better. Obviously we needed his points tonight. So he was a big part of this win.”
I talked to Hilbert after the game, and he agreed with Constantine’s conclusions.
“As a line, I think we played well,” he said. “The last couple of games we’ve had a couple of rough games for our line in particular. Tonight, I thought we played well, but I thought the whole team played well tonight.”
Constantine noted Hilbert’s leadership qualities. And how much he wanted to contribute tonight. Hilbert says that just how he plays.
“That’s how I think I like to lead, by example. I’m not a huge rah-rah guy. I think, if you go out and work hard, and other guys see that you’re out there contributing, working hard, doing the little things, it just filters on down through the entire team.”
**************** How about that game by J.P. Testwuide? The rookie got some nice playing time during the playoffs last season, but he has yet to score any professional points. Until tonight.
“It was just a good pass by [DiSalvatore],” he said of his goal “He gave it to me, kind of, at the beginning. And then he got open, and I gave it back to him. A great play. Luckily it snuck in there.”
Constantine noted that neither Testwuide or Lannon -- who had his first goal in two seasons -- are on the team to score, but he’ll gladly take their contributions on that end.
“We had two [defensemen] score their first goals,” Constantine said. “Nice to get contributions from those guys. We don’t expect them to have to worry about that, but when they can contribute like that, it’s great.”
************** Here are some miscellaneous stats. Tonight was the first time 12/26/08, in a 5-3 loss in San Antonio, that the Aeros have allowed three power play goals in one game. It was also, according to Constantine, only the third game this season that the Aeros have won after giving up the first goal.
With his goal, DiSalvatore joined Daoust as the team’s only 10-goal scorers this season. Didn’t Kolanos have 10 goals after five games last year? Hilbert now has 12 points for his last 10 games (3-9=12). Daoust has nine points for his last 10 games (6-3=9). Chad Rau has eight points for his last 10 (3-5=8). Max Noreau has nine points for his last 19 (5-4=10). Jon DiSalvatore has eight points (7-1=8) for his last 10.
******************* Now excuse me while I go off on a rant….
I would like to once again thank Jamie Spencer with the Wild for getting us the weekday game replays. But maybe he needs to have a talk with them and ask them to actually replay the Aeros goals. For some strange reason, the first two Aeros goals weren’t replayed tonight. I would have really liked to have seen Hilbert’s goal again as it looked like a great play by Hilbert and Rau in real time.
But then again, I don’t want to detract from the Kiss Cam, I guess.
****************** And The Beatles video is really easy tonight. This game was kind of like one we saw last season. Lots of scoring, some lousy defense, and lots of dramatics. So I say tonight’s game calls for “Get Back.”
Happy New Year everbody. Thanks for reading. And please, may 2010 be a better year than 2009 has been.
Kevin Constantine has told us over the past several years that one of the games he can never predict is the game after the Christmas break. It’s just one of those wild card games in which he has no idea which of the teams is going to show up, or how the game is going to go. And tonight’s game was a perfect example.
The San Antonio Rampage showed up for the entire game -- they especially showed up for the first period as they were up 2-0 just a little over six minutes into the game, and before many of the 6323 fans in attendance had even found their seats. Then Barry Brust came into the game for the ineffective Anton Khudobin and could only watch helplessly as one of those fluke shots that have haunted Wade Dubielewicz all season went into the net to make the score 3-0 at the 9:05 mark of the first period.
That third goal came about when Brust went behind the net to field the puck and send it out to one of his players. But a weird hop there, and strange bounce there, and the puck was on the stick of the Rampage’s Matt Watkins who easily found the empty net.
“It was kind of riding on the dasher,” Brust said of puck. “And it hit a partition and just popped out front. It’s tough luck. We got a couple of those last year, and didn’t have any against us until tonight.”
Luckily, the first period ended before San Antonio could do any further damage. But the damage they’d done would prove to be more than enough.
A different Aeros team came out for the second period, and it was a team that leveled some hits and found a way to get on the board, the first coming when Jon DiSalvatore took a pass from Nathan Smith then snaked his way through the Rampage defense to score a short-handed goal at 1:44. Then Max Noreau fired a shot from way up high, which with the advantage of what appeared to be a nice screen from Duncan Milroy, got past San Antonio’s Justin Pogge at 16:00 to make the score 3-2.
“We came in the room -- we scored two goals in that period which was huge for us,” Noreau said. “Jon had made a great move on that short-handed goal and that was huge for us getting that first goal, and we were only down by one. One more shot on the net, and it’s a goal and it’s a 3-3 game and we come out with the win.”
But that one more goal was not to be. Houston out-shot San Antonio in the second and third periods, and many of those shots were of a high-percentage variety, but Pogge proved to be just too good as San Antonio got the 4-2 win (the final goal came on a San Antonio empty-netter at 19:00 of the third).
The loss dropped the Aeros record to 16-14-2-1 (35 points) and a disturbing 9-9-1-0 at home. They’re now in fifth place in the West Division, two points behind Rockford, Peoria, and Milwaukee -- who are all tied for second -- but only three points up on sixth place Chicago. They’ll next play on Monday night when they host the Syracuse Crunch at 7:05.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
As Andrew mentioned below, Constantine is displeased with the effort of some of his forwards, though he didn’t name names. And it’s a trend that he’s noticed over the past several games. He specifically mentioned the Grand Rapids game.
“We finished the break with a win, but gave up a lot chances against Grand Rapids,” he said. “So it was nice to get the win. But there were little signs of stuff, and I don’t know, if we had checked out a little in the Grand Rapids game. If you remember we had a really poor start -- a bad start to the third period. I don’t know if we had checked out a little bit there, and I don’t know if we’d checked back in yet either. I know that there are circumstances around those, but the trend of the two games, is concerning.”
There are several things bothering him -- a lack of physical play, and a tendency to give up the first goal on the first shot of the game.
“You can take the obvious, which is pucks, lot of first shots or first scoring chances have gone in on us in the last five games,” he told us. “There’s a goalie readiness issue in that. Our physical play is down significantly over the last couple of games. So there is a compete factor for the forwards. There’s some guys whose game has flattened out a little bit or dipped a little bit, so there’s some individual guys whose performance is down right now. There’s a combination of a lot of stuff, and you don’t know exactly how to look at it when you have the circumstances of the break. So you have to grind our way back into the playing the we know we can play.”
I also talked to assistant coach/assistant GM Troy Ward a bit after the game for a piece I’m doing for the mothership next week. And he noted that there’s still a problem with some of the guys who are new to the team still trying to do things their own way a bit too much. He said that last year, guys like Krys Kolanos and Corey Locke had the ability -- especially on the power play -- to do things their own way and still get the points whereas some of these guys -- once again, not naming names -- just don’t have that ability. His hope, and belief, is that guys like Brandon Rogers, Max Noreau, and Danny Irmen -- guys who know Constantine’s system -- will be able to get the newcomers to trust in the Constantine system because they know it works.
**************** As you might have noticed, Barry Brust made his return to action for the Aeros, playing his first game in a Aeros sweater since last March. And except for that fluke goal in the first, he was perfect, keeping the team in the game and giving them a chance to win.
“He was great,” Constantine said. “He had the weird goal against, but -- we gave up two breakaways at the start of the second period and it’s over because then it’s four-nothing [unless Brust makes the save], so we didn’t even have a prayer unless he made five or six big saves to give us at least a chance to come back.”
And as Max Noreau stated, it was a great game for goalies: “[Justin Pogge] made some great saves out there and kept them in the game. Brusty did the same thing for us in the third period and the second when we gave up a couple of breakaways. The goalies played a huge part in the game tonight. Hopefully we’ll get better bounces next game.”
As for Brust, let’s just say that Heather wasn’t the only one happy to see him back in action. For one thing, he’s always a good guy to talk to in the locker room after the game, win or lose, but he’s also fun to watch out on the ice.
And while I’m sure Brust was happy to be back, I’m pretty sure that this is not the way he wanted to make his return. However, playing for Kevin Constantine, a goalie has to follow the Boy Scout motto and always be prepared.
“Here the coaches aren’t afraid to pull the goalie,” Brust said. “So you pretty much have to be ready, no matter what. You’re always into [the game], trying to talk on the bench and stuff like that, and try to stay into it mentally.”
As for the loss, Brust was philosophical: “We battled hard, but the hockey gods didn’t want to give us this one tonight.”
**************** From reading the comments, I can tell that some of you are a bit upset about tonight’s Bikini Contest. Especially with it coming right after Christmas. My response: GET OVER IT. First, the team generally has a great attendance on the night of this contest, so that means there are plenty of people who like it. And I wouldn’t expect them to do anything about a promotion that increases attendance. Second, this isn’t the first time they’ve had this contest on the first game back from the Christmas break. They did it at the same time last season, and they’ve had it on this same night in other seasons.
I’m generally not one to defend the team when it comes to promotions, etc., but anything that helps the attendance and doesn’t detract from the game -- like a lot of the promotions do -- isn’t a bad thing. You didn’t have to walk around a bunch of dogs, you didn’t have to miss work to attend an 11:00 game so school kids could attend, they didn’t have to stop play for many, many minutes to clear teddy bears off of the ice, and you didn’t have to deal with several annoying choirs singing the same damn song during intermissions.
***************** Forecheck, I noted your request for Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.” That’s nice, so nice, that I’m going to give that it’s own post, primarily because, several months ago, I set myself a goal of trying to find a suitable Beatles song to play after every game, without repeating a song.
That brings us to tonight’s game. So in honor of several women I know swooning over the appearance of Mr. Brust in goal, and in honor of the guys who were swooning over the young ladies in the Miss Aeros contest, here’s The Beatles with "I've Just Seen A Face.”
Well how about that? The Houston Aeros looked like a professional hockey team on the ice tonight -- on the offensive end -- and they showed that good things can happen when you score goals as they got the 5-3 win over the Grand Rapids Griffins this afternoon.
Grand Rapids got the scoring started when Patrick Rissmiller scored on Wade Dubielewicz at 4:40 of the first period, and it kind of looked like that this was going to be another one of those games where the Aeros get blown out before going on break. But at 14:46 of the first Max Noreau got a nice pass from Duncan Milroy, proceeded to fake a Grand Rapids defenseman of out of his gear, then snapped the shot by Daniel Larsson to tie the score.
The second period was all the Aeros as Andy Hilbert got a nice cross-ice pass from Jean-Michel Daoust and put the puck in the net to make it 2-1 at 2:56. Duncan Milroy punched in a Brandon Rogers rebound at 6:49 to make it 3-1, then Jon DiSalvatore made it 4-1 on an unassisted goal as he skated around the Grand Rapids defense and made use of a screen to get the puck past Larsson.
Grand Rapids changed goalies to start the third, and the change seemed to suit the Griffins as they got the puck past Dubielewicz twice to make the score 4-3 with nearly 15 minutes remaining in the game. But Grand Rapids would get no closer and Noreau would get the empty-netter at 19:37 to make the final 5-3.
“It’s fun. I’m not going to lie,” Dubielewicz said about playing a game with a big lead. “When we put up four, it’s not that you can relax by any means, but you can get in the game, you can get in the flow of things, and if you make a mistake it’s not going to cost you two points. That’s what it was tonight. It was nice. It was a lot of fun.”
The Aeros now head into the Christmas break with a record of 16-13-2-1 (35 points) and are percentage points ahead of Rockford for fourth place in the jam-packed West Division. The Aeros return to play on Saturday night when they host the San Antonio Rampage at 7:35.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS NOTES:
Andrew did the checking on this, and it’s rather amazing when you think of the team this year. But every year since Constantine’s been here, the team has headed into the Christmas break at or just above five hundred. The 2007-08 team was 15-12-1-1 (32 points) at this point. Last year’s team was 15-10-1-6 (37 points), and this year’s squad is 16-13-2-1 (35 points).
“That’ll be all right if the second half goes like the way the second half went both years,” Constantine said. “I mean, a chance to climb up in standings. At least we’ve put ourselves in a position to be competitive in the division. We’ve got to figure out a way now to have an even better second half because it’s a good division and we’ve got to climb our way into making sure we’re in the playoffs.”
As for what’s in store for the second half, Constantine would like to see the team improve it’s play at home, put some more points on the board, and go off on a long winning streak.
“So somewhere we need to put at least one stretch, this year we have to put some type of string together at some point just to kind of insure we make the playoffs.” he said.
He is pleased that the team won four of the last five games of this stretch, but he and the players are upset that they couldn’t go into the break with a five game win streak.
Brandon Rogers thinks the team is what it is, which is a team that’s going to win 90-percent of its games by a 2-1 score.
“Obviously we always want to get better offensively,” he said. “That’s one of the things we work on all of the time in practice is making sure we’re scoring goals and trying to get better offensively because our base is always going to be strong defense, and if we can get better offensively, and keep building on that all year, then we’ll be a better team over all.”
***************** Some of the young guys like Chad Rau were looking kind of tired coming into these past several games, primarily because they’ve never played this many games before. But Constantine hasn’t had many resources at his disposable because of injuries in Houston and in Minnesota. However, he expects Petr Kalus and Colton Gillies to be able to return to play next Saturday when the team returns to action, and he expects Peter Zingoni to be able to start getting back on the ice and testing his injury when the team returns for practice, those his return to game action is further off.
Also, as Heather mentioned in a post below, Wade Dubielewicz is off to Switzerland to join Team Canada in some international hockey action. He departs on the Tuesday, and he should return to the Aeros on the January 1st. Until then, the goalies will be Anton Khudobin and Barry Brust, which should make Heather happy.
***************** I’ve just about had it with the cheerleading from the PA, the PA speaking during game action, PA spots extending after for a long time after game action has resumed, the sound effects that pop up from nowhere during game action, and certain various people who don’t know how to turn off their microphones. There’s not much I can do about it as we reporters have a reputation about bitching about everything. But I know that there are many of you out there who are getting a bit pissed about this, as well. So, might I suggest, that, if you’re bugged, too, you go here and start firing off some emails to some of the people who might be in a position to do something about this. It’s making the team look unprofessional. But don't bother the people in Hockey Ops, Corporate Partnerships, Ticket Sales, Joe O'Donnell, or the receptionist.
***************** And to end things tonight, I’m going to go with The Beatles “Magical Mystery Tour.” Primarily because, on several of the goals, especially Noreau’s first period goal, I had flashbacks to last year’s squad which seemed to be able to score at will. So until next Saturday, may you all have a Merry Christmas and may you all enjoy a Magical Mystery Tour of your own.
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